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ANNUAL MEETING OF THE REGENTS OF- THE 
UNIVERSITY. 

Senate Chamber, Albany, January 12, 1882. 



The Death of Regent Hale. 

The Chancellor haviug announced the death of Regent 
Robert S. Hale on the 14th day of December, 1881, Regent 
Curtis presented a draft of a memorial minute to be entered on 
the records of the Board. He spoke as follows : 

Regent Curtis : 

Too often, Mr. Chancellor, have our recent annual meetings 
been saddened by the commemoration of some one of our 
number departed. But during the time of my connection with 
the Board no greater loss has befallen it than that which we 
now deplore in the death of Robert S. Hale. He was one of 
the men whose vitality is so rich and sparkling, whose inter- 
ests are so varied, and whose sympathies so generous, that their 
death is like a sudden chill at midsummer. His alert^and in- 
cisive intelligence, his quick and flashing intellectual grasp, his 
blithe courage and somewhat aggressive independence, with a 
certain lofty and amused disdain of whatever is mean, and n ar- 
row, and low, made him one of the most interesting of men. 

Add to this his affluent humor, his mental training, his gen- 
erous literary taste finely cultivated, and his memory like a 
well ordered arsenal, in which every weapon of eveiw calibre 
is always standing in its plac, brightly burnished and ready 
for instant use, and you have also one of the most fascinating 
of companions. No man enjoyed more than he the gauaium 
certaminis. What the poet makes Ulysses say of himself he 
could have said, 

" 1 love to drink delight of battle with 1113' peers.'' 
He rode into every intellectual contest armed cap-a-pie. He 
struck no foul blow, and victor or vanquished he was still a 
knight without fear and without reproach. 



4 « 

He was a lawyer always busily engaged in the practice of his 
profession. But he had that high public spirit and patriotism 
which was natural to the grandson of a captain of minute 
men who, within twenty-four hours of the news from Concord 
and Lexington, mustered his company of fifty-four men out of 
the 148 men of the village able to bear arms, and paraded them 
upon the village green, ready to march to the field. This 
blood of the minute man always beat in his veins. With the 
alacrity of patriotism he repaired to every public post to which 
he was summoned, and there with entire devotion he did his 
duty. The courts of law in which he was distinguished on the 
bench and at the bar; the Congress of the United States in 
which he fitly represented the pure character, the high intelli- 
gence and the simple Republican manners of a great rural con- 
stituency ; the national and international tribunals before 
which he successfully maintained the rights of citizens entrust- 
ed to him by the government; the community in which he 
lived respected and beloved of all men ; the home consecrated 
by that holy tenderness of affection which is the chief glory 
and consolation of human life, all these lament our friend. 

We knew him especially and officially in his relations to the 
care of the higher education of the State, and we knew the 
liberal and the humane spirit, the diligence and sagacity, the 
ripe experience and wide knowledge and unflagging interest 
with which his duties here were discharged. We blend our 
sorrow with the common grief. I feel, Mr. Chancellor, that 
I speak for every one of us in saying that J have lost not only 
an official associate by whom T was instructed, but a personal 
friend whom I loved. 

When Richard Cobden died, his adroit and untiring antago 
nist of many years, the late Lord Beaconsfield, then Mr. Dis- 
raeli, said in Parliament with pathetic magnanimity that there 
were certain members of the House who, having been once 
elected, never ceased to be members. Whether elected or de- 
feated, afterward, whether seen or unseen, living or dead, their 
wisdom, their character, their public service, remained a pos- 
session ot Parliament forever, guiding and illuminating Eng- 
land. In these familiar and friendly councils of ours we shall 
see no more that bright and active presence, nor grasp that 
kind and cordial hand, nor hear again the cheerful music of a 



voice that is still. But in the unfading memory of that opu- 
lent and joyous nature, of that diligent life devoted to honora- 
ble ends, of that enlightened and generous and tender spirit, 
we shall feel that Robert Hale is still our associate, and that 
though dead he yet speaketh. 

As an expression of the feelings of this Board on this oc- 
casion, I move, Mr. Chancellor, the adoption of the following 
minute, to be entered on the records; and that a copy duly 
attested by the signatures of the Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor 
and Secretary be sent to the family of the deceased. 

Memorial Minute. 

The Board of Regents desire to inscribe upon their Records 
a permanent memorial of their respect and affection for their 
late associate, Robert S. Hale, and of their grateful recogni- 
tion of his important public services. Mr. Hale was born in 
Vermont sixty years ago and graduated at the University of 
that State. He then taught in the academy at Montpelier, and 
began at Chelsea in Vermont the study of law which he com- 
pleted at Elizabethtown, in New York, at which place he 
entered upon the practice of his profession after his admission 
to the bar in Albany in 1847, and he continued in that prac- 
tice at Elizabethtown until his death. In 1856 he was elected 
County Judge of Essex County and in 1859 a Regent of the 
University. In 18G0 he was appointed a Presidential elector, 
and in 1865 he was elected to Congress. In 1868 he was em- 
ployed as special counsel of the Treasury before the Court of 
Claims of the United States. In 1876 he was nominated as a 
Judge of the Court of Appe As but with the majority of his 
party candidates was not eleciad. In 1871 he was appointed 
agent and counsel of the United States before the mixed Com- 
mission of claims under the Treaty of Washington. In 1873 
he was again elected to Congress and in 1876 he was ap- 
pointed by the Legislature one of the Commissioners of the 
State Survey. 

To the discharge of these various professional and public 
duties Mr. Hale brought a singular combination of powers. 
His fine natural ability was admirably trained by various study 
and accomplishments. His mind was as accurate as it was 
alert. His memory was a treasury of well ordered knowledge. 
His eloquence was clear, forcible, and brilliant; and his quick 
sympathies, his profuse and delightful humor, his moral earn- 
estness and courage made him one of the most delightful of 
companions as he was one of the most persuasive of advocates 



and most upright of magistrates. His political like his pro- 
fessional career was distinguished by that independence which 
is as rare as it is manly, and which of itself is a public influ- 
ence of the highest character.. In this Board Mr. Hale's ser- 
vice was constant and efficient. In all its deliberations his 
sound judgment, his clear perception and his great experience 
were invaluable, and the Board are but too sadly conscious 
that his loss cannot easily be replaced. 

It is indeed but an inadequate expression which any form of 
words could supply for the regret of this Board in the death of 
Regent Hale. His perfect rectitude, his admirably trained 
powers, his joyousness, and courtesy and sympathy, his high 
public spirit, his hearty fidelity to every duty, united to 'form 
the Christian gentleman whom his associates can never forget 
nor cease to deplore. 

Regent Brevookt : 

Mr. Chancellor : After the glowing and well deserved trib- 
ute which we have just listened to, I can add but a few plain 
words in memory of our recently deceased associate. He was 
but a few years my senior as Regent, and as my acquaintance 
with him was chiefly as one of our Board, I may speak of him 
only in that capacity. 

However, his qualities as an able jurist and pure public ser- 
vant were so well known by his permanent record that I had 
learned to admire virtues which every year seem to be less appre- 
ciated, and to have almost become things of the past. I re- 
member not ten or twenty years ago when men of that stamp 
were more common, and without any reflection on our present 
representative men, I belive that the number of men like the 
late Robert S. Hale is less than then. 

As I said, his ability as one of our Board, fully impressed 
with the duties of the office, was the characteristic that most 
attracted me. His clear apprehension of an involved or doubt- 
ful question and his mode of clearing it up were simply won- 
derful. This faculty no doubt ensured him success in his pro- 
fession, but it was also of inestimable value to us in the Board. 
His pleasant way of amending a written report by suggestive 
interlineations, which were always aptly expressed and clearly 
worded, can never be forgotten. • 

He rarely entered into the discussion of a question unless 
well prepared to maintain and enforce his views, which gener- 



ally proved to be the most proper and best adapted to settle 
the matter in debate. But as a man and as, a ft\end he was 
welcomed by all who came in contact with him. His hearty 
and genial greeting were enough to make one like the man, 
and we shall miss his presence and this warmth of companion- 
ship, such as but few possess. 

He was unsparing of himself in work, and his naturally 
robust frame yielded, in time, to the demands made upon it 
and upon the active energies of his mind. My hope is that 
one equally capable may be selected to fill the vacancy his 
death has caused in this Board. 

Regent Fitch said : 

Mr. Chancellor, I had intended to say a few words concern- 
ing our late friend, Robert S. Hale, but the ground has been so 
fully and so ably covered by the gentlemen who have preceded 
me, that I should refrain from adding anything to that which 
has been said, if I did not have a special object and feel im- 
pelled by a special sense of duty to say at least something. It 
is the first time since I have been a member of the Board t'jat 
I have been thus specially constrained. 

To me, Mr. Chancellor, there is something infelicitous in the 
rule of the French academy, which ordains that a newly cho- 
seu member shall deliver a panegyric upon the one whose death 
has made his election possible. The laurel is intertwined with 
the cypress, and through the stateliest strain of eulogy for the 
dead there seems to run the undertone of the gratulation of 
the living. Far more appropriate is it that the associates of 
the one who has departed, whose long intimacy and kindred 
pursuits with him give them the warrant to speak, should pay 
to his memory their meed of affection and of respect. In the 
gold of their tribute, there can be no alloy of selfishness. You 
have heard from those who have been intimately associated 
with judge Hale in the work of this Board, and who well 
knew the qualities that informed his being and conspired in 
his success. The words they have spoken are words of beauty 
and tenderness and truth, but no words can be too graceful or 
too gracious in which to set forth the truth that was exemplified 
in his life and illustrated in his career. It seems proper that 



6 

a younger member of the Board should supplement these words, 
however feebly and unsatisfactorily he may do so. If I cannot 
claim any great intimacy with Judge Hale, I can at least ex- 
press my sense of gratitude to him for aspirations quickened, 
for energies stimulated, and for some excursions with him into 
those wide realms of knowledge which he so freely traversed 
with assured feet. I come to express m}- gratitude as from a 
scholar to a teacher, and I frankly say that from such inter- 
course, as I have been privileged to have with men of promi- 
nence, I found him one of the ablest men I have ever met. He 
was singularly well equipped. His knowledge ran out in many 
difierent directions. As a lawyer he was acute, accurate and 
profound ; as a jurist he was learned, discriminating and im- 
partial ; as a legislator, he was discreet, able and conseien tious ; 
and as a scholar he was exceedingly well informed, and that in 
several departments of research which few essay. In the clas- 
sics andjn- English literature he was an authority, and had 
made thorough studies in ethnology and archaeology. G-enea- 
ology had a supreme attraction for him, and he did much to 
revive an interest in it. He was proud of his Puritan ances- 
try, and had an earnest faith in the Puritan principle ; and, 
bettor than all, his mental structure rested upon the firmest 
moral basis. In all the walks of life he was distinguished, but 
his various accomplishments were ever subordinated to the high- 
est moral principle. 

He lived in a small and quiet village, scarcely more than a 
hamlet, in the northern part of this State. There has always 
been a questiou whether men who are reared within the fric- 
tion of great cities have the better opportunities for develop- 
ment, or whether they may become stronger or more robust 
from constant communion with the sublimity of nature, 
where the great peaks lift their faces to the skies and the 
streams make music as they flow toward the sea. Be this as 
it may, Judge Hale chose the latter, and although his practice 
extended through many counties and he was frequently heard 
before the court of last resort, and he was called to the public 
service at both the State and national capitals, he was faith- 
ful to his early chosen residence and to the attachments there 
formed. He has often spoken to me of his mountain home 
with euthusiasm and with reverence, and I am sure that he 



found among the hills, where he so long lived, both the inspir- 
ation to intellectual effort, and the exhileration which betrayed 
itself in his subtle humor and genial temperament. 

And now one other reflection, trite, perhaps, but persuasive, 
occurs to me. If in this age of materialism, we can find no 
arguments, capable of being formulated with mathematical pre- 
cision, with which to enforce our conviction of immortality, we 
have something better than argument, upholding and strength- 
ening our faith, in the life and character of such a man as 
Judge Hale. We refuse to believe that his mighty mind has 
crumbled into nothingness. No infidel philosophy permits us 
to say, in the hushed chamber of our grief, that the voice of 
our friend is silenced forever, or that his brilliant gifts have 
been eternally eclipsed by the shadow of the tomb. We know 
better. As the midnight sun of the Artie zone just dips below 
the horizon, to appear a moment later in greater splendor and 
glory, so we know that the soul of our friend disappears but 
to shine with an effulgence of which our imagination can have 
but feeble conception. 

The Memorial Minute was then unanimously adopted, and 
out of further respect to the memory of Regent Hale, the 
Board adjourned. 



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